Global warming, a terrifying thought to many (except for a few skeptics) is in the forefront once again. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration of the US government has announced only last September, the global average for the period January to August 2010 is 580F (14.5 0C) and that is only second to the average in 1998, the all-time record since the record keeping commenced way back in 1880.

So far the recoded average temperature this year has been 1.21 oF (-17.1 0c) over even the 20th century global average.

The year 2005 however is on record as the warmest ever in spite of the lower first eight month temperatures. An unexpected upward rush of the temperatures towards the tail end of the year put it on record as the warmest ever over a period of twelve months.

Phew! That was only 5 years ago and now this.

NAOAA’s Global Climatic Data Centre also point out that last August was the 3rd hottest August on record, the top spot going to the year 1998, last year being the second. Last August the average temperature on the planet has been 62.2 0F (16.20C)

The summer worked out from June to August has recorded a sensational 61.3 oF (16.3 0C) on the average, being only second to the all time peak in 1998.

Apart from the unusual hottest climates experienced in the Eastern Europe, Eastern Canada and certain regions of Eastern Asia in last August, the Australian continent, Central Russia and Southern parts of South America showed lower than normal cool climate unexpectedly.

The other side of the coin is presented by the National Snow and Ice Data Centre (NSIDC) of the US who has been monitoring the Snow and Ice Data in the Arctic through satellites moving miles above earth since 1979. They have revealed the sea ice covering this summer has been the third lowest since they commenced recording data. Only data recorded in the years 20o7 and 2008 have been thinner. On the September 10th they recorded the lowest sea ice coverage for the current year, measuring only 1.8 million square miles (466,197 860 hectares) which is 625,000 square miles (161, 874 257 hectares) less than the minimum average recorded over the period 1979 to 2009. (Too recent for my comfort!)

Surprisingly, in spite the delayed on set of the ice melt season, the rate of ice loss accelerated losing within days quantities equivalent to that lost in May and June. The melting season has been shortened to just 163 days.

The Arctic mammalian fauna has been driven to the shorelines as the sea ice available in plenty during this period in other years has been hard to come by this year. Melting of ice in Greenland, Antarctica, Glaziers in Himalayan mountainous regions are instrumental in the ocean level rising in several parts of the planet.

The atmospheric scientists continue to press their data based inference that these distorted weather patterns and geophysical changes are due to global warming, which unfortunately some still fail to grasp. NAOAA‘s records do provide unshakable scientific evidence of gradual rising of the atmospheric temperature. Meanwhile only a few weeks backs it has been reported that the flow of water to the oceans from the main land mass has increased by 18% over the last few decades.

Have we started moving in the right direction as yet?